Spring Showers

Listening to the thunder roll and the spring showers water the ground is an answer to my prayers.  "Lord, please water the garden so I don't have to. " :-)  Spring is a time of hope, a time to pause and prepare for a new season of growth.  The hard and dry ground is just coming out of a long cold snowy winter, and waiting full of potential for new life to be born.  I can't wait for it to warm up!  My husband would have to agree as he is probably tired of hearing me whine, cry, and complain as I anxiously watch the weather and calender for warm days.  No matter how many times I check my seed packets, they all say "wait till all danger of frost is past".  As much as I would like to dump everything else in life and go running outdoors to plant like a wild schoolgirl just let out for the day, I know it would cause more harm than good to my precious seedlings.  For love of them, I will wait.  To preserve future harvests, I will let the sun warm and the worms wiggle in silence.
As I think of this summer beginning with school ending this week, it makes me reevaluate my own life.  Have I allowed the Lord to melt the cold ice built up in my heart from previous hurts?  Has he melted my fears with the warmth of his love?  Am I willing for him to till up my hard ground and prepare it for his seeds of patience, joy, perseverance, commitment, and love to grow within me?

Far too often, God is ready with his seed packets, anxious to start the summer harvest.  But out of wisdom and love, he waits.  God waits!  For what?  For my heart to melt, for the ground to soften, for the hard soil to loosen it's cling on the things of this world and to embrace the flowers of life.

"Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you."(Hosea 10:12).

Lord, soften my heart.  Show me the habits, the wastefulness, the hardness of ground that may have come over the winter.  Prepare my heart for spring, for your fruitfulness.  

John 15 1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^a so that it will be even more fruitful. 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.